The online poker industry in the state of Michigan has been absolutely booming over the previous year. According to the latest reports on the Michigan online poker scene, the state’s poker traffic has increased by over 32% following the move of PokerStars MI partnering with PokerStars NJ.
Since the 1st of January 2022, under the provisions of MISGA, online poker fans and enthusiasts residing in Michigan and New Jersey get to play together at the PokerStars online poker platform; almost twelve months later, this has proved to be one of the most monumental steps towards the rise of Michigan online poker, considering the state’s online poker traffic is growing at a staggering rate.
In the last twelve months since PokerStars combined its player pools from New Jersey and Michigan, the state’s traffic has grown by around 18.7% on a yearly basis. This being said, the state of Michigan has surpassed Pennsylvania as home to the most profitable online poker market in the United States.
Given that BetMGM online poker is planning to join the bandwagon, the Great Lake State and its tremendous online poker market may grow even more, with another operator entering the shared liquidity scene in the coming months, judging by the latest reports.
Did Shared Liquidity Pay Off for PokerStars?
On the 1st of January 2022 — less than two years after going live — PokerStars Michigan combined its online poker player pool with New Jersey. Eleven months later, traffic to PokerStars MI has increased by 32%, which is a tremendous increase no matter how you look.
When MI online poker legislation was passed, it considered shared liquidity, which helped the state “fast track” to its current position. Even before the move towards shared liquidity, PokerStars already had a tremendous loyal base of Michigan poker fans and enthusiasts.
Even though PokerStars was already a leader in the MI online poker market, shared liquidity gave it a more significant advantage over two competitors, WSOP.com MI and BetMGM Poker MI. Based on the latest reports on the online poker traffic of the two platforms, BetMGM Poker MI traffic dropped by around 10%, while WSOP.com MI experienced a drop of 4%.
These reports suggest that many Michigan online poker players left the two platforms in favor of more excellent opportunities presented at PokerStars MI with combined player pools.
Additionally, overall traffic has increased for the year, so PokerStars’ gains have outpaced BetMGM and WSOP a lot. What we can gather from this is that players prefer interstate online poker with opportunities to play with poker players from other states than standard poker platforms with a single player pool.
Thanks to this expansion, Michigan now has a 29% market share, compared to 28.89% in Pennsylvania, making it the largest online poker market in the United States. With almost $1.6 billion in revenue this year, this growth has also helped Michigan’s online casinos have a great 2023.
BetMGM Preparing to Share MI Liquidity
In the latest business update from the 4th of December, BetMGM executives stated that online poker shared liquidity is imminent, suggesting the company has already taken the next steps towards combining its New Jersey and Michigan player pools. This move will probably strengthen Michigan’s position as the top online poker market in the USA.
Considering the success PokerStars has experienced since expanding its player pool and allowing players from NJ and MI to play together, it appears that other operators following in their footsteps is only a matter of time and further expansion of the MI online poker market is only a matter of time.
